Piping Plovers and Sea-level Rise

This collaborative project provided biologists and managers along the Atlantic coast with tools to predict effects of accelerating sea-level rise on the distribution of piping plover breeding habitat, test those predictions, and feed results back into the modeling framework to improve predictive capabilities. Immediate model results will be used to inform a coast-wide assessment of threats from sea-level rise and related habitat conservation recommendations that can be implemented by land managers and inform recommendations to regulators. Case studies incorporating resilience of piping plover habitat into management plans for specific locations demonstrate potential applications.

Abstract:

This collaborative project of the North Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative provided biologists and managers along the Atlantic coast with tools to predict effects of accelerating sea-level rise on the distribution of piping plover breeding habitat, test those predictions, and feed results back into the modeling framework to improve predictive capabilities. Immediate model results were used to inform a coast-wide assessment of threats from sea-level rise and related habitat conservation recommendations that can be implemented by land managers and inform recommendations to regulators. Case studies incorporating explicit measures to preserve resilience of piping plover habitat to sea level rise into management plans for specific locations demonstrate potential applications.

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Project Status:

In January 2015, the final report of this project was submitted to the LCC and is posted below.

The coupled plover and coastal change models have been completed and in 2014 an article on this work was published in Ecological Modelling. A second component of this project focused on how varied conservation actions may impact patterns of Piping Plover habitat use and habitat change. Results of the first year of the project were presented in a Jan. 2012 webinar.